Phobia(What Are You Afraid Of?)
by kaiwai
Summary: D'mitri's childhood nightmares are re-emerging after he reveals he isn't afraid of anything, but these nightmares are much more real and dangerous than he remembers, and who is the monster torturing him in the nightmares? Can Kaneki help him in time to save him?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I f*cked up guys. I can't stop with the entering of contest after contest after contest. Ever since one of my loyal and faithful followers told me about inkitt, all I ever do is join writing contests on there. I mean, why not? Free publicity, right? There's nothing wrong with that...**

 **Anyway, here's another of my rushed inkitt disasters. I watched an episode of family guy where Stewie has all these nightmares and that's what the main creature in this story is based off of, so if you want a good image of it beside the shitty mental picture of it that I painted here, I have found one with the url to what a rough idea of what the monster looks like. Just remove the spaces:**

 **vigne .nocooki /familyguy/image s/a/aa/Dacx11_020_04_0158_ /revision/lates t?cb=20160302212821**

 **Anyway, a lot of this is based off of me. These are real dreams I've had in the past and these are real fears of mine. I'm not sure how comfortable I was with posting this at all, actually, and when I was writing about a few of my biggest fears that happened to D'mitri, I had to take a lot of breaks to keep myself from freaking out. And actually, there are a lot more than just this-both phobias and nightmares. I'm just posting the ones important to the storyline. I guess if I really decide to, I'll post more of the nightmares he has in this book and extend it a few chapters.**

 **Well, I'm going to leave before this note gets too long(too late) and I would really really appreciate if you guys could tell me what you honestly think about this book(please, nothing negative. If it sounds offensive, it probably is. A simple 'fix this, that was good' will do). I really do enjoy getting feedback from everyone.**

 **Warning: language, major character deaths, violence, gore, character disputes, lots of scary sh*t going on. If you're claustrophobic, aqua/hydrophobic, or electrophobic, PLEASE DO NOT READ ON, OR IF YOU DO, BE WARNED.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul, Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, Vampire Knight, Bleach, Vocaloid, Super Sonico, Noragami, Boku wa Tomodachi wa Sukunai(Haganai) or any of the other animes in here that I may have missed. Those belong to Hajime Isayama, Masahiro Yokotani, Matsuri Hino, Tite Kubo, Yamaha, Sony, Adachitoka, Yomi Hirasaka, or any other authors I may have missed respectfully and in that order.**

* * *

"D'mitri?" Kaneki asked, looking up at the younger brunette from his book. They were in the BC food court, which was rare for Kaneki since he hated the incredible distance it took to get anywhere you wanted since the food court offered every dish imaginable by food cul-de-sac(or so Kaneki believed.). Yet, the brunette leafing through ice cream catalogs with the most innocent, adorable look on his porcelain face was able to convince the ghoul to come down to the food equivalent of a mega-mall.

D'mitri looked up when Kaneki called his name, pulled from his ice cream trance. "What's up?" he asked, and Kaneki bit into his cheek.

"Are you...afraid of anything?" the ghoul was semi-hesitant to ask, but he was reading about dreams and the subconscious, and as soon as he hit the part about Sigmund Freud's research into the amygdala and the subconscious mindscape, he'd the urge to ask.

D'mitri blinked a few times. Was Kaneki serious?

"Uh...I'm not really afraid of anything," D'mitri answered, "I'm a doll, remember? I can't exactly feel fear. I can only feel distress, which is exactly what I'm getting from you. Is anything wrong?"

"No. I just...was wondering. You know what I'm afraid of, and I don't really know what...well, I guess it's nothing, then. You're really not scared of anything?" he asked again, and D'mitri smiled warmly. "Kaneki, the only thing I would be afraid of is losing you. And that will never happen as long as I'm here to protect you. Unless..." his smile disappeared and the hand that had taken Kaneki's dropped as he continued speaking; "unless you left me."

Kaneki smiled wryly. "You act as if that would ever happen," he said, then he joked, "maybe only if Rize wasn't a flesh-eating bi-"

Kaneki was interrupted by D'mitri's hand slapping over his mouth. "Don't ruin the golden moment," D'mitri said, and Kaneki simply nodded.

* * *

That night proved D'mitri wrong. As usual, he'd nightmare after nightmare, but most he knew he wouldn't remember. Until he found himself in a rather odd dream.

All he could hear was the soft yet intense music of Blue Foundation; he smoothed out his black tuxedo automatically and tried to stop himself or move as he clipped on his cufflinks, but he couldn't react as he slowly walked down a hallway, approaching a large oak door. He took several rough tugs on the door, but it wouldn't give. D'mitri frowned and propped his foot up on the wall before giving another sharp tug. With a loud groan, the door opened, and D'mitri was met with painful darkness. He stepped foot inside and immediately felt himself falling, but also floating, as if that door was the entrance to Wonderland and just like Alice, he was falling down the rabbit hole.

But this was different.

This was different because D'mitri couldn't breathe.

Air bubbles escaped his lips as he tried to gasp for breath, and when he looked up, all he could see was blurry lines of blue, green, orange, and the yellow of what looked like the sun baring down on him, and he knew. He was drowning.

D'mitri was then yanked back up to the surface and he struggled to breathe as suddenly he was surrounded by water fountains of all kinds spurting out from a lake. He was back at Woodward park in central Fresno, and he couldn't contain himself as panic ripped through his senses. Every time he moved or turned, there was another water fountain splurging up in his direction and he screamed in terror, but he wasn't sure why the fountains were making him so terribly frightened. All he knew was that he wanted it to stop more badly thank he wanted anything else he could think of.

Just when he thought he could take no more, something pushed him from behind, straight towards the water fountains. He fought and thrashed hard, but nothing could stop the inevitable, until the water fountains mutated into an electrical transmission tower and he fought harder, screaming into the cloudy skies.

The pull towards the tower became stronger and he moved faster until he looked around to see he was in a car with his parents, but neither turned to look at him. He tried to call for them to get their attention, but neither noticed he was in the back, so he attempted to reach to touch them, but he was binded tightly by the dozens of seatbelts in the back to the seat of the car. Then he realized where exactly they were headed.

Just a few hundred feet away were the most enormous wind turbines he'd seen in his life. And they were headed straight into the forest of them.

D'mitri closed his eyes tightly as tears streamed down his cheeks. He wasn't having this. He wasn't having any of this. He closed his eyes tighter, and when he opened them, he was awake, really for real awake, and he was in the hospital where several people near his room were looking strangely at him. D'mitri snapped, "what!? Haven't any of you ever had a fucking nightmare before!?" He got up and bolted to the bathroom to look at his reflection in the mirror. He indeed had tears streaming down his cheeks, and he started to realize how hoarse his voice was from screaming.

He'd screamed and cried in real life...that's why everyone was staring.

D'mitri looked back up at his reflection. He wouldn't let those nightmares get the best of him.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here we go with another chapter of this crap. Might as well. There's a total of 5 chapters and it's 2am here so I'm only going to edit and post two chapters then post the rest tomorrow during study group. Thank you all and good night!**

* * *

"What're you doing!?" D'mitri laughed as Sonico hung like a monkey from the door handle of the classroom. Sonico let her legs slide out, semi-spread, so it appeared as if she was sitting on the floor with her hands twined tightly in the door handle, even though her bottom wasn't even close to touching the cold floor.

Zero rolled his eyes as D'mitri fell to the floor and almost choked and died of laughter. Sonico was beyond bored, and when that happened, she let her silliness get the best of her.

Pouting, teary red eyes glanced up at the watch on her wrist. Still ten minutes before the teacher would open the classroom.

Sonico groaned audibly, and Zero pried her from the door. "Stop it," he said, "just wait, will you?"

"But I'm so BORED!" She exclaimed, and D'mitri stopped laughing long enough to suggest the pink-haired girl play videogames on her phone.

"But they're all BORING!" She cried out once again, and once again, she groaned. Kaito grew annoyed.

"Hey! Some of us have tours, concerts and music videos to work on and prepare for! Think you could keep the drama down, _Sony_ co?" he said, stressing the syllables.

"Sure, Yama- _gay_ -to," she snapped back, and Kaito lost it.

"That doesn't even make sense!" he shouted.

"You don't make sense!"

"You were the one that made up some lame mockery of my name! At least mine was good!"

"Yeah, cause the first syllable of my name actually hints the company that made me, unlike some retarded jerks! Who the hell names their synthesizer 'Kaito'!? Or 'Megpoid!?' Or 'Miku'!? God, that one has to be the worst! Even Megpoid is a better name than 'Miku'! She isn't a star-child! She's a whore child!"

"Least we can sing! What do you do!? Nothing but wave your big fat ass and chunky fake tits all over a camera!"

"Least I don't pose licking a hotdog-shaped twinkie you LARDASS!"

"You-

"That's IT! I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL KILL THE BOTH OF YOU AND YOUR LAME-ASS COMPANIES IF YOU DON'T SHUT YOUR ASSES UP!" Zero snapped, and an awkward silence blanketed the hallway before Yukki broke the silence.

"I have large tits too," he said, lifting up his shirt and showing off his chest. "See? They're huge." Yuno yanked his shirt back down and it was quiet for a few more seconds before Sinon lifted her shirt and declared she had large breasts as well.

The last eight minutes of the time they had to wait was spent in laughter and in declaration of having big breasts. Everyone but Zero was amused.

* * *

D'mitri took a deep breath as he stared back at himself in the mirror. He could do this. The nightmares were almost always a once-a-week thing. He could do this. There was nothing to fear, anyway. He was a lucid dreamer in his nightmares, so this time, instead of freaking out, he decided he would fight back. If there was anything to physically fight.

"Coming?" Kaneki asked as he put away his toothbrush and toothpaste. D'mitri nodded and followed the ghoul to the bed.

He sighed heavily before closing his eyes in sleepy bliss.

* * *

D'mitri stared at himself in the mirror. His reflection grinned widely back at him, blood pouring out from his mouth. D'mitri growled and punched the mirror, shattering it completely, but the pieces remained on the wall; all but one that fell into the sink. D'mitri's now blurred and shattered reflection picked up the shard and forced D'mitri to slit his own throat, but the brunette refused. Instead, he ran out of the bathroom and out into his bedroom. He sighed in relief as he saw Kaneki sitting on the bed with his back to D'mitri.

"Hey, babe, mirror's broken. Stay out of the bathroom until I can get someone to repair it, okay? Babe?" D'mitri slowly inched towards Kaneki, when the ghoul turned towards him with a badly charred and distorted face and lunged at him. D'mitri dove for the door and slammed it closed before the monster could get to him. His heart raced, and he looked across the hall at the door.

D'mitri went to open the door, but he was frozen. He felt as if he was going to come with something he wouldn't want to ever dare face if he opened the door. Something so terribly horrifying, it was keeping D'mitri glued to his spot on the red, plush-padded carpet.

He finally grew the nerve to open the door and came face-to-face with the empty room of an obvious teenage girl. But there was something off about this room. There were porcelain dolls everywhere, dozens and dozens of dolls, and every one of them was glaring intensely at him as if they wanted him dead for interrupting their peace. He looked over at the bed where a teenage girl lay dead and covered in blood; the girl had been mutilated and D'mitri figured she'd been bludgeoned to death. He looked back over at the dolls which were now covered in blood and grinning evilly in satisfaction.

D'mitri took a look at what she'd been doing on her laptop and all he saw was a blog of how she'd been spying on him and how close she'd come several times to fulfilling her fantasies of kidnapping and raping him. He backed up in horror until he felt himself bump into what he thought was another person, but when he whirled around to apologize, he was met with a large black mass with massive, sharp fangs and it grinned before it lashed at him.

D'mitri jolted awake with a cry of pain, and his abdomen burned so badly, he thought he might die. In his episode he'd woken Kaneki, who was immediately alarmed by the younger's pained cry.

* * *

Kaneki rolled up D'mitri's shirt as slowly and carefully as he could and the younger hissed in pain. There, on the brunette's right lower abdomen, were six deep marks that looked as if he'd been badly bitten by a vampire with multiple fangs then the creature decided to tear the wounds open as it left the skin instead of simply releasing its' victim.

Kaneki froze in horror. "Who-what did this!?" he demanded in rage and terror, and D'mitri panted. "A-ah..u-uhm...it was probably Reney. You know how feisty she gets when I'm host for too long," he lied, and Kaneki didn't buy it, but he didn't push it further. He figured he'd better leave it alone if D'mitri was insistent on lying to him, because that usually was the younger's way of saying 'don't worry about it', but he worried anyway. What was hurting his lover?


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm sorry I'm getting so lazy with my stuff, guys. This has not been my week. It hasn't been my week my whole life, actually. Usually I get lucky for like 15 minutes then I'm back to the same thing.**

 **Anyway, here's another chapter of this. Really, I'm not sure what I was thinking. It was inspired by a show of Family Guy. Freaking Family Guy.**

 **I'm done with myself.**

 **Go ahead and ignore me.**

* * *

D'mitri looked into the mirror of the school bathroom. He'd been having these nightmares consistently for about a week now, and the batterings were getting worse and worse. Just the other night, he'd been strangled almost to death, and the marks were getting worse instead of fading. He'd had bruising from being beaten around before that, but once he'd been strangled, the next night, he'd beaten with a metal baseball bat until he'd been hit in the head so violently he was awaken with a sharp jerk to the side. He'd everything from welts to bruises to lacerations to gushing, oozing gashes and even a cut that almost split his temple open and that had needed 12 stitches.

That was the night before last. Last night...he swallowed hard. Last night he had woken up rather rudely, and when Kaneki tried to ask him about the nightmares this time, D'mitri didn't answer. He just urged the ghoul to go back to sleep until finally he'd gotten pissed and yelled at D'mitri.

That was what hurt D'mitri the most. He was hurting his ghoul by keeping secrets and not sharing anything about his nightmares with Kaneki, but he didn't want the older to worry. Until last night...he really couldn't talk about what happened last night.

Fingers wrapped tightly around him and a gasp escaped his lips as the tears flowed more freely down his cheeks and the velvety touch continued down to where he was being-

D'mitri shuddered. He shoved the memories of the nightmare as deep away as he could, but it didn't help. His eyes glazed over when he was the liquor cabinet in the lounge-room. It was his dad's collection, but he kept several extras locked up in the bar cabinet in the island in front of the display. Did he dare..?

* * *

Kaneki unlocked the front door to the shared dorm he had with D'mitri and he pushed his backpack off his shoulders and onto the soft white carpet next to him.

A putrid, rotten odor hit him. He made a face and sniffed the air a bit more. He recognized that scent...could it be?

He walked barefoot into the lounge-room and froze at the sight before his eyes. D'mitri was a disheveled mess on the couch, the bar cabinet open and obviously raided with dozens of empty liquor bottles scattered and some even broken on the floor in a trail leading to where D'mitri was currently working on a bottle of 278-year-old bourbon.

"Did you know," he slurred, "that my father stole his collection of liquor from the distillery he worked at? True story. They thought it was the guy that packages the stuff that was stealing it. He took so many bottles of this shit. Oh man, I gotta pee. Nope, barf. Nope, pee. No, wait, wait...I'm good. I'll pee in this plant."

D'mitri started to get up and walk towards the plant in the corner but he was immediately met with the floor and he giggled like a schoolgirl.

"Well hello," he said charmingly, "funny how we both ended up on the floor like this with me on top-"

"D'mitri," Kaneki warned, and D'mitri looked up at Kaneki before apologizing to the carpet.

"I'm sorry, baby, my boyfriend's calling. But hit me up if you're into threesomes," D'mitri said as he sat up, but his body wouldn't let him.

"Whoa," he laughed, "guess we're playing the gravity game. Mmm, you feel so good..." D'mitri nuzzled into the carpet happily, rolling around.

Kaneki snatched the bottle from D'mitri's hands, earning a protest from the younger, but D'mitri was too weak and sluggish to put up much of a fight.

"Let's get you into bed." Kaneki picked up the younger brunette and carried him to their bedroom.

D'mitri let Kaneki pick him up and carry him and his head tipped back as he had no energy to keep it up against Kaneki's chest. He looked out the glass windows to see a creature that looked like a mutilated, distorted, evil and bloody version of himself sitting on a tree branch outside. D'mitri knew he was only hallucinating from the lack of sleep, but still, he couldn't help but stare at it. It wasn't like he could move very much anyway.

Kaneki lay D'mitri down in bed and tucked the younger in. D'mitri fussed and whined like a child, sluggishly whacking the blankets down until only his lower half was covered.

Content with his position, D'mitri settled sleepily into the bed. He did have to admit, he was awfully tired, and he really didn't want to move from the terribly comfortable position he was in.

Kaneki brought the younger water, and forced him to drink it.

"It'll keep you from having a horrible hangover in the morning. I'll make you a nice breakfast too. Please?" Kaneki pleaded, and D'mitri downed the water glass.

Sleep quickly claimed the brunette before he ever even looked to see where Kaneki placed the empty glass, and he plunged into the world of blissful, deep sleep.

For about ten seconds.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I think I'm gonna stop with all the authors/ notes before the chapters of my books. Nobody reads them anyway, so what's the point, really?**

 **And if you do, this'll be better cause you can get to the actual story faster rather than hearing about my life blah blah blah.**

 **I'm just great to be around, aren't I?**

 **No for real, though, I'm really pessimistic. I'm always tired and cranky and unless I get exactly what I want when I want it all the time, I'm like a four year old. I throw fits and tantrums and I don't really care what happens or who dies unless I get what I want. It's pretty funny to watch if you just sit back and watch me actually.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

D'mitri looked up at the clock. He'd been in this class for thirty-five minutes, and he wanted to lay down and die. He was so tired, he felt like he could sleep for a million years.

Normally, as a shapeshifter, he wouldn't need very much sleep if any at all, but since he had adapted to Kaneki's schedule, it was much harder on his body when he didn't get the sleep his body craved.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn't realized how good it felt to sleep until he took it on. It was like floating on water. It felt nice and all you wanted to do was go with the flow and relax, and he just wanted to relax...

Before he knew it, class was dismissed, and D'mitri followed the rest of the class out the door, automatically saying bye to some of his friends. He turned to take the back elevator to the basement where he could work silently on his homework, but there was something different about the basement. It was much darker than usual, and D'mitri could swear he felt something sort of beckoning him in as he hesitated in the elevator. The doors started to automatically slide shut, but he stopped them, and after taking a few deep breaths, he went into the basement.

D'mitri switched on the little desk-light he had on the wooden table, and he pulled his laptop and books out of his backpack. They landed with a rather loud and heavy thump on the desk, and D'mitri could swear he even heard a little rattling inside. Slowly, he reached to open the books, but found nothing but normal books and normal textbook crap droning on about the subject of the book, so he closed them and continued to bring out his pencil.

D'mitri didn't know how, but as soon as he had taken a breath, he was well into his notes, already almost halfway done with the page. He wondered for a minute how he'd gotten there, when he realized something. He hadn't seen the time on the clock when they were released. He hadn't seen any of his friends' faces. He hadn't seen the numbers or read the usual capacity and emergency warnings that he always did on the elevator wall. He had seen the text, but he hadn't read anything it said when he opened the books, and when he looked down at his book and notes, his notebook was blank. All his notes were gone.

Shit. He'd fallen asleep in slowly started to take over D'mitri as his whole body tensed. He got up and ran towards the stairs. Screw his stuff. Screw the elevator. Screw everything. It was a dream, right? What difference would it make? What would it matter?

D'mitri continued running up the steps, but he felt his movements grow slower and slower, and the stairs never seemed to end. Now he was really starting to freak out.

A piece of dark cloth wrapped tightly over his nose and mouth, and he fought for a few seconds before his body went completely slack, and he was headed straight back into the darkness.

D'mitri wormed and fought, but dark, tentacle-like arms wrapped around his body, almost consuming him. He closed his eyes. Better he not see this, and he was safe for another moment until he felt a soft breath on his cheek. He knew that smell...that gentle touch...

He opened his eyes to come face-to-face with the same tall, black mass with fangs that he'd been seeing in his nightmares, and it was so close, he could almost feel its' grinning face on his.

He was terrified.

But he fought back.

"Fuck off, mate. I'm taken," he hissed, and the creature looked angry and confused for a moment, but then it grinned wider, as if pleased by the reaction. A long, dark tongue emerged from its' mouth and D'mitri had to hold his breath just so he wouldn't retch at the smell of it.

D'mitri pulled at the tentacles until they snapped, and he uppercut the creature as hard as he could. With a sickening crunch, the creature's tongue landed at D'mitri's feet and sizzled until it vaporized. The creature howled and screeched in pain, and D'mitri didn't hesitate. He bolted towards the exit up the stairs, and was relieved when he reached the top of the stairwell where the exit door was. D'mitri gave the door a harsh shove, but his relief was shortlived, because the door would not budge.

D'mitri swore not-so-quietly and took a step back. The creature had regained its' composure, and it growled and tore up the stairs after him. D'mitri clenched his teeth and gave the door a sharp kick. Finally, he broke the door off its' hinges and was able to run through before the creature could reach him.

D'mitri ran towards the seashore at the edge of the campus, determined to outrun the creature no matter what.

His body started to ache and burn, and he was really out of breath, but he didn't dare stop. The next thing he knew, he was yanked violently into the water, and waves were splashing and throwing him around, confusing him. D'mitri then remembered something he had well and drilled into his students in case something like this ever happened to them.

Dive.

D'mitri took a deep breath before he ducked underwater, and he was able to reach calmer waters as he remained close to some nearby coral. Landmarks. The coral appeared to reach past the surface, which meant he could use it to rest so he could take a chance to scan his surroundings and get back on campus.

D'mitri tried to swim up, but something had taken hold of his ankle, and refused to let go. He looked down to free himself from what he thought was just seaweed, but there was the creature he thought he'd escaped, clinging tightly to his ankle. He fought harder to get away from the creature, air escaping his lungs. Precious air...he needed air...

Something splashed in his face, he wasn't sure what, but when he looked up to find out what it was, he was back in his classroom and the whole class was staring at him. Sena had dumped her water bottle on him to wake him because she had seen him struggling and in distress, and she was now watching him with honest concern.

D'mitri breathed heavily, and the teacher finally spoke up. "Are you alright there, Mr. Karev?" she asked, and D'mitri nodded. "Just uhm...nodded off. I'm sorry, may I be excused?" he said, but before the teacher answered, he had collected his books and notes and he was out the door.

D'mitri hurried down the semi-empty corridors of the school, not sure where he was going, but trying to get away. He suddenly made a turn to his car, and threw his stuff in the back.

With a slam of the door, he was sitting in the passenger's seat, heart racing. He needed to calm down. He needed something. Anything. He couldn't get drunk again, because Kaneki was already more than pissed with him and that would probably be the end of it all if he picked up another glass.

Then he remembered the lunch bag he kept in his glove box.

* * *

Haru and Rin strolled across the parking, eyes scanning the cars for Haru's silver Fusion. "Did you park it near the back?" Rin asked, but they were suddenly stopped. A faint, wet-carpet smell filled their senses, and they frowned. What was that?

Haru went towards the smell to investigate further, Rin at his heels, and both were surprised at what they found.

"L-Lieutenant!?" Haru squeaked out, and D'mitri looked up at the blue-haired boy. His eyes looked bloodshot, and he appeared as if he could fall asleep any second, but the brunette was laughing.

D'mitri grinned. "Hey! You! I'm sorry, what's your name, bro?" he asked, and Haru and Rin exchanged concerneed glances before they looked worriedly at the brunette.

"Lieutenant, what are you doing? Oh my God, is that weed!?" Haru exclaimed, and D'mitri looked down at the pipe in his hand.

"What?" he asked confused, "no. This is called a pipe, my weird-haired friend."

"Not the pipe, what you're smoking!"

"Oh. Yeah, it's weed."

"Oh my God, it reeks!"

"That's normal, dude. It's like a plant or something, man. I think, anyway. Hey, hey, come here. I want to tell you something."

D'mitri pulled Haru into his lap awkwardly and hugged the younger, and Rin tried hard not to laugh. "I love you man," D'mitri said, "so don't ever forget it. You mean the world to me and I get just so emotional-"

"Lieutenant," Rin interrupted, "how high are you?"

D'mitri giggled and patted Haru's head. "No officer," he said, "it's 'hi, how are you?'"

D'mitri laughed as if completely amused with himself and Rin looked at Haru. Haru was more worried, and Rin was plain annoyed.

"Hey, let's go. We got to get back before my sister takes over the kitchen and starts dinner. She'll burn the whole school down," Rin said, but D'mitri refused to let Haru go.

"No," he whined, "my fishy-dolphin boy."

Rin sighed, beyond annoyed at this point. He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Just go on without me. It'll be fine. I'll meet you there," Haru said, and Rin didn't hesitate to do just that.

"Your funeral," he called as he left.

Haru turned back to look at D'mitri. This was not going to end well.


	5. Chapter 5

D'mitri twitched and murmured in his sleep. Haru knew what was happening; he was having a nightmare. He just wanted to see where this was all going.

He'd had the team from the Underground Lab come and hook D'mitri up to a few machines in order to understand what was going on in his mind and why he was having these nightmares. He'd heard about this stuff happening, but when he'd called Kaneki to help the brunette get better, the ghoul refused and hung up, so Haru was stuck doing this on his own.

Like he had any idea what he was even going to do. He needs help.

* * *

"Okay, look here," Luka said as she set down the book in her hands down for a minute, "it says that most likely, his nightmares are caused by subconscious fears in the psyche. None of the dreams will make sense, but they represent things. It says that if you have dreams where your hair or your teeth fall out, you may be insecure about your appearance. Uhm...I don't see anything for any of the things he's been seeing in his dreams though..."

Luka and Gumi continued reading through the books they had as Haru and one of the lab techs helped.

"Got it!" Gumi exclaimed, and she slammed down another book over Luka's. "This is a simple matter of insecurity and fear of abandonment. Here's how we fix it."

* * *

D'mitri looked tiredly at the trio. "Are you sure this will work?" he asked, and Haru, Luka and Gumi nodded. D'mitri sighed, "very well."

He lay back and let one of the lab techs inject him with a sleeping serum. Slowly, D'mitri let sleep consume him and he was under faster than he could breathe in.

The lab tech watched the monitors closely. "BP is 110/50 and dropping...101/48...93/41...this is strange...his blood pressure is incredibly low for someone that's asleep and claiming to have nightmares," the lab tech said, and Luka looked at the monitor. "What's the average for a sleeping person?" she asked. "about 104/64 in the average 20+ adult. But his shouldn't be that much lower or higher," he answered, and Haru stood.

"That's it," he said, "I'm getting Kaneki."

* * *

"No way," Kaneki said as he shook his head. "That bastard's on his own. He won't tell me anything? Fine. I won't help him."

"You have to," Haru said, "or you're going to lose him. Forever."

Haru's phone went off and the blue haired swimmer muttered something as he flipped open his phone and answered.

"Hello?"

"Haruka! It's Gumi. D'mitri's blood pressure is through the roof now. The nightmares are starting. It's now or never, and we need to hurry. He's already at the REM stage."

Haru uttered an "I'm coming" and hung up, standing. "He's already blowing up the CBC monitors. Are you coming, Kaneki?" Haru asked, but the ghoul continued to refuse, so Haru just rolled his eyes and ran off back to D'mitri's room.

* * *

"What's happening!?" Haru said as he ran inside the room. The girls had been told to stand aside and when Haru looked at the monitors, he knew what was happening. D'mitri was crashing.

"We can't get anything of a pulse at all," the lab tech said, "he's completely out. His heart won't be able to take the resuscitation if we try to revive him, so all we can do now is wait, watch and hope for the best."

* * *

D'mitri typed quietly on his black toshiba, the atmosphere heavy and silent besides the clacking of the keyboard keys. D'mitri was struggling to finish a last minute paper, and his mind wasn't working with him. Suddenly, the light illuminating half his room and keyboard flickered before it went out completely, leaving him in pitch-black.

D'mitri swore softly and started to turn his body so he could get up off the bed and change the lightbulb, when he noticed a very distinct and familiar figure out of the corner of his eye standing at the head of his bed where his back was turned just moments ago. That's when he knew.

He was dreaming.

Panic overwhelmed D'mitri and he dove for the door rapidly as the creature loomed over his shadow, barely missing grabbing his ankle.

D'mitri tore open the door and froze as he realized the doorway was cut off at the frame and he lost his balance, falling into the abyss on the other side of the door.

He didn't scream, though he wanted to. He wouldn't give the creature the satisfaction of that little thing if he could help it.

D'mitri hit the cracking, dry and hardened ground with a soft squeak that escaped his lips along with a breath as he landed. He rolled onto his back from his side and groaned rather loudly in pain, which attracted several of the smaller creatures nearby. D'mitri opened his eyes wide in terror as the little creatures swarmed at him, and he crawled backwards as fast as he could to get away from them. D'mitri did scream this time as he slipped backward into a rabbit hole and got stuck halfway through. He started thrashing a bit, his heavy, panicked breaths causing the dirt from the mud roof just centimeters away from his nose and lips to fall into his eyes and mouth. D'mitri stopped fighting and panted, his breath growing faster and heavier. He couldn't breathe.

D'mitri suddenly screamed again as his ankle was grabbed sharply and snapped to twist him and drag him out of the hole. D'mitri clawed the dirt ground rapidly, trying to keep from facing whatever it was that grabbed him. His efforts were useless.

A tall, thin figure with sandbags for a body lifted him up by the ankle and captured him in a brutal mockery of a kiss. D'mitri froze in horror as he felt something small and worm-like slither into his mouth and attempt to force its' way down his throat.

The creature released D'mitri's lips only to pull back the sandbag over its' head and reveal millions and millions of maggots for a face; it grinned widely at D'mitri and the brunette couldn't help but let out another scream.

The creature was suddenly pierced by with sharp, razor talons and was ripped from its' earlier spot on the ground with D'mitri still in hand. A large, mutated bird carried the creature and a dangling D'mitri with it until the bird's head exploded violently in midair and the creature and D'mitri were dropped.

This time, D'mitri landed on a mass of tall, sharp grass that was more like painted nails, and he inhaled sharply as the tips caught him in their steel, rusted grip, piercing his back in more than a hundred thousand different spots.

D'mitri breathed raggedly through his lips, tears escaping his eyes. He wanted so badly to go back. He needed to go back. Where was back, though?

He tried to close his eyes as tightly as he could and opened them again as to wake himself, which up until then worked, but this time, it wasn't doing the job, and D'mitri just relaxed into the nails with almost a sigh of relief. He had given up. He was going to let the dream and the creatures inside it do what they want with him. Kill him. Skin him. Boil him. Eat him. He didn't care anymore. It's not like he had anyone waiting for him back home.

But he didn't know how truly wrong he was.

* * *

"D'mitri!" Kaneki called as he ran in. "dammit, let me in! I can wake him up! Let me in!" Kaneki banged on the door to D'mitri's room where the others were keeping him, and finally, Gumi opened the door, meeting his desperate gaze with a glare.

"You said you didn't want to help him," she hissed, and Kaneki panted softly.

"Damn it woman I don't have time for your bullshit! Let me in!" he demanded as he shoved his way into the room. He froze when he saw D'mitri limp, muddy, drenched in sweat and bloody on the bed. He looked as if he'd just gotten into a really bad fight and lost, and more and more blood was slowly soaking the sheets from all the injuries on his body. He looked truly horrible.

"Oh god," Kaneki choked out, and he sat beside the brunette.

"D-D'mitri," he said, holding D'mitri's hand in his own trembling ones. "Pl-please...if you can hear me...come back to me...please...come back to me safe..."

* * *

D'mitri was drained. His body hurt. He was covered in blood, sweat, and mud, and caked dirt stung his cheeks as if soaked into his cuts with his sweat. Everything stung. Hurt. Ached. Badly.

Just as D'mitri thought he couldn't handle any more, he felt the ground shake a bit. Then a thump, and it shook again.

The thumping and the shaking got worse and D'mitri quickly realized it was another creature coming to get him. He mustered what energy he had left into jumping to his feet and bolting off in any direction away from it. No. No more. He couldn't take this anymore. He was determined to defeat this thing.

With staggering effort, he fought everything in his body that was begging him to stop and ran faster down the cracked dirt path through barren trees. The creature continued mercilessly on his heels, gaining on him. D'mitri panted heavily, burning from the strain on his muscles, but he didn't dare give up.

The creature grew tired of playing cat and mouse and disappeared, no longer following D'mitri. D'mitri allowed himself to slow to a stop this time, looking around to see where the creature went. The are around him looked a lot like Silver Grey, with gloomy skies, barren, thin, black trees, cracked, desert-like grounds, and yellowing grass, if there was any grass at all.

D'mitri continued to search for the creature, but there was no sign of it, until he felt something breathe down his neck. A tongue ran over his neck and wrapped tightly around it, choking him. D'mitri gasped and fought the grip as he was lifted a solid three feet into the air. His feet swung under him, and he slowly fell limp in the grip of the creature when it turned him to face it. The creature looked like something out of a horror movie with hollow eyes that appeared as if they had been gouged out and blue, cracked skin as if it had been drowned.

Rows and rows of razor teeth revealed themselves as the creature shrieked so horribly in D'mitri's face; the brunette covered his ears tightly, trying to block out the sound until he felt his own body explode from the sound and he was out of the creature's grip and running for his life again.

D'mitri turned back to see a large, mutated frog hopping menacingly after him, causing him to nearly fall over every time it landed on the ground. He finally did fall over when it landed almost on top of him, and he had to duck and roll to avoid its' fangs from sinking into his now fragile body.

D'mitri rolled back onto his feet and continued running, not caring how close he was to really giving up, whether he wanted to or not.

That's when he ran into the same black mass that had been haunting every one of his dreams.

D'mitri stopped running, panting so hard it was hurting his body. Everything was screaming at him know, even his still twisted-up ankle that had earlier been so violently snapped.

Where it came from D'mitri wasn't sure, but he didn't care. He pulled out a long, sleek, brimstone katana, ready to fight the creature that had tortured him and end this mess, one way or another.

The creature seemed more than pleased with this, and the two exchanged a silent, unspoken but understood conversation between each other. D'mitri was first to strike.

He slashed and slashed at the creature, missing at first, until he felt a surge of emotion well up inside him, guiding him. D'mitri slashed down at the creature again and successfully struck it, making the creature shriek in agony. It seemed as if there was some sort of physical property to the katana that was weakening the creature, and D'mitri didn't hesitate to continue striking at the creature, hitting and hitting it over and over again until he had it a small shadow on the floor, quivering in terror.

* * *

Kaneki pulled out the brimstone katana he'd had strapped to his side under his uniform since training. He set it in D'mitri's arms and gently stroked the blade before the ghoul kissed D'mitri's forehead.

"Knock 'em dead, D'mitri. You can do it. I know you can. You're D'mitri Karev."

* * *

D'mitri held his blade up over the creature. He hesitated for half a second, and it was half a second too long. The creature didn't hesitate to grab D'mitri's already injured ankle and dig its' claws into his skin. D'mitri screamed in pain and dropped the katana, collapsing onto his back.

The creature grabbed the katana and didn't hesitate to stab D'mitri through the chest. D'mitri's eyes widened and his breath hitched and caught in his throat. His body shook a bit with the shock of being stabbed as fresh, warm blood blossomed across his chest from the wound. It hurt like the dickens, and it took everything he had to try to pull the katana from its' place in his chest, but the creature drove the sword deeper through his chest, digging into the ground and pinning D'mitri securely to the ground.

D'mitri gasped and tears flooded his cheeks as he slowly fell limp; the creature roared in what sounded like a mocking laughter. It had won. Or so it thought.

D'mitri watched as an image of Kaneki's smile flashed over his eyes, and he closed his eyes tightly once more. "I-I'm..not..d-done," he stuttered, and the creature laughed harder, turning its' back on the brunette.

D'mitri growled and with a sharp thrust, he did a kick-up onto his feet, yanking the katana out of the ground and with his body.

Now buried to the hilt through his body, the katana sat uncomfortably in D'mitri's chest, and with a lot of struggling and gasps of pain, D'mitri slowly pried the sword from his body.

The creature growled in frustration at D'mitri's refusal to give up and die, and as it turned to finish the brat, D'mitri came flying at him, sword held firmly in his hands and ready to strike down the creature with one final swing.

"OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!"

* * *

The lab tech shook his head slowly. "I am so terribly sorry," he said to Kaneki. The ghoul couldn't believe it. He'd seen D'mitri fight so hard in the battles they'd previously fought together...why was this time different? Did he forget what he had here and just give up?

Just as the lab tech was about to call time of death, D'mitri jolted upright, gasping desperately as if he'd been underwater for ages and had just gotten his first taste of oxygen.

The group cheered happily as Kaneki hugged D'mitri tightly. The brunette hissed softly in pain but hugged back as just as tightly as his strength would let him.

After a minute of rejoicing, D'mitri looked into Kaneki's eyes and grinned. Kaneki frowned. "You're not-" his sentence was cut short as D'mitri grabbed him by the throat and crushed his windpipe with inhuman strength. Haru and Gumi tried to stop him as the lab tech pulled out a gun, but D'mitri was quicker. He threw the sword at the lab tech and pierced through his skull, pinning him to the wall behind him.

D'mitri caught the gun that fell from the now-dead lab tech's hands and used it to shoot Haru, Luka and Gumi in the head, grinning wider in satisfaction.

"W-what d-did you d-d-do with m-my D-D'mitri?" Kaneki managed to squeak out, and D'mitri turned his attention to the ghoul.

"I am your D'mitri," he said, but Kaneki protested weakly before he could continue.

"Y-you're not," he said, starting to lose his voice completely. "M-my D'mitri would n-never h-hurt m-me. Y-you're a m-m-monste-"

D'mitri snapped Kaneki's neck with a flick of his wrist and dropped the dead ghoul on the ground.

"I don't like labels, you know," he said to the lifeless body of his ex-lover, and he stepped over the other bodies as he exited the room, gun in hand.

?


End file.
